ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy cross country teams head to Bethlehem, Pa. as Navy takes part in the 50th Paul Short Run hosted on Lehigh University's Goodman Campus Cross Country Course. The College Men's Gold 8K race begins at 11:00 a.m. followed by the College Women's Gold 6K race at 11:45 a.m. Prior to the Gold races, there is a men's open race at 9:30 a.m. with a women's open at 10:15 a.m.
 
Live results are available via PTTiming.com.
 
Meet Participants – College Men's Gold Race
Army, Binghamton, Boston College, Boston University, Bowling Green, Brown, Bucknell, Buffalo, Carnegie Mellon, Central Connecticut, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Delaware State, Fordham, #12 Harvard, High Point, Hofstra, Howard, Johns Hopkins, Kennesaw State, La Salle, Lehigh, Miami (Fla.), Monmouth, Navy, Northeastern, Penn, Penn State, Pitt, RPI, Rider, Rutgers, San Francisco, St. Joseph's, Stony Brook, Temple, UConn, UMBC, UMass Amherst, UMass Lowell, Utah State, Wingate, Yale
 
Meet Participants – College Women's Gold Race
Army, Binghamton, Boston University, Bowling Green, Brown, Bucknell, Cedarville, Central Connecticut, Cornell, Dartmouth, Delaware, Fordham, (RV) Harvard, High Point, Howard, Johns Hopkins, Kennesaw State, La Salle, Lehigh, Manhattan, Maryland, Miami (Fla.), Monmouth, Navy, Northeastern, Penn, #21 Penn State, Pitt, Princeton, Quinnipiac, Rider, Rutgers, San Diego, San Francisco, Stony Brook, Tampa, Temple, UConn, UMass Amherst, UMass Lowell, Utah State, Wingate, Yale
 
Paul Short Run
The annual Paul Short Run presented by ASICS is set to be hosted on Lehigh University's Goodman Campus this upcoming weekend. After hosting the first Paul Short Run five decades ago, the 50th run is slated to be the biggest one yet.
 
For the first time in the race's 50-year history, the Paul Short Run will be split up over the course of two days, with high school races taking place on Friday, October 4 and college races taking place on Saturday, October 5. This year, over 7,000 total athletes will compete, representing over 600 different high schools and colleges. Six high school races will be run on Friday while eight college races will occur on Saturday.
 
The Paul Short Run is in honor of the late Paul Short who served as Lehigh's Business Manager and Assistant Director of Athletics for 29 years. During his tenure at Lehigh, Short became an avid fan of Lehigh cross country and track and field. He was a 1934 graduate of Lehigh and Roger S. Penske / Lehigh Athletics Hall of Fame inductee in 2000 who excelled as a football, wrestling, baseball and lacrosse student-athlete.
 
In 1969, former Lehigh cross country and track and field head coach John Covert organized the meet with just seven teams competing. In 1981, the women joined the Paul Short Run, running a 5K which eventually changed to a 6K in 2000.
 
Last Time Out (MEN)
Navy placed four runners – senior Murphy Smith (4th), junior Jackson Nguyen (10th), senior team captain Luke Nester (15th), and junior Justin Mumford (16th) – in the top 20 of the Men's Gold (DI) 8K race at the 38th Roy Griak Invitational hosted by the University of Minnesota at the Les Bolstad Golf Course in Minneapolis, Minn. as the Midshipmen finished second overall as a team. The Mids posted a team score of 71 to finish eight points back of team champion Wyoming who tallied a low score of 63 points.
 
For the second straight race, Smith led the team with a top five performance finishing fourth among the 180 runners who completed the race. The senior clocked a time of 25:07.1, and was in the top five throughout the competition, jockeying for position before crossing the line in fourth.
 
Nguyen posted a time of 25:18.2 to finish 10th overall. Similar to Smith, Nguyen started in the top 15 moving into 10th-place at the 5,000m mark and holding strong throughout the finish line. Nester and Mumford finished back-to-back to claim 15th and 16th overall, respectively. Nester posted a time of 25:24.8, while Mumford was a little over a second behind with a time of 25:26.5. Freshman Patrick Gandini rounded out Navy's top five with a time of 25:40.2 to finish in 26th. Junior Matt Newell was sixth among Midshipmen with a time of 25:53.6 to finish 40th overall, while sophomore Logan Flament was 59th with a time of 26:09.5 to close out the Mids' top seven runners.
 
Last Time Out (WOMEN)
Navy posted a strong outing at the prestigious Roy Griak Invitational hosted by the University of Minnesota, finishing eighth as a team in the Women's Gold (DI) 6K at the Les Bolstad Golf Course in Minneapolis, Minn.
 
Meet-host Minnesota won the women's team competition with a low score of 47, while No. 25 Utah Valley was second with 53 points. Wyoming and Colorado State – who was receiving votes – were third and fourth with scores of 79 and 99, respectively. Ohio (162 points), Montana State (204), and Ohio State (218) finished in order ahead of Navy (259). San Diego State (262) and North Dakota State (265) rounded out the top 10.
 
For the second straight meet, senior Alex Wercinski has led the team, finishing the Griak with a team-best time of 22:41.1 to finish 38th overall among the 195 runners who finished the race. She was in 45th place through the first mile and dropped to 64th through the midway point of the race. Wercinski moved up 26 spots over the final 3,000m of the race to finish in the top 20-percent of the finishers on the day.
 
Junior Sophie Compton was second among the Navy runners, clocking a time of 22:49.3. She was consistent throughout the race, checking at 47th through the midway point of the competition, overcoming a runner in the final 1,000m to finish 46th overall. Senior team captain Olivia Lutkevich posted a time of 22:56.4 to finish seven spots back of Compton. Sophomore Lexi Ensor was the fourth Mid to cross the finish line, posting a time of 22:59.9, while Lillee Tang rounded out the Navy top 5 with a time of 23:23.0. Senior May McConkey (23:34.2) and freshman Madeline Palmisciano (23:42.9) closed out the scoring for the Midshipmen.
 
Up Next
Navy will host Army in the annual Star Meet, which is part of the overall Army-Navy Star Series presented by USAA, on Saturday, October 19 at the USNA Cross Country Course. The women's race is slated for 11:00 a.m. with the men's race to follow at 12:00 p.m. Live results will be available.